Thursday, April 13, 2017

James Baldwin’s Archive, Long Hidden, Comes (Mostly) Into View | April 12, 2017

Arts | American writers | African-American culture | Archives

A page from “The Amen
Corner,” a three-act play by James Baldwin, part of his personal papers
that are now at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture.Credit
Emon Hassan for The New York Times

James Baldwin
died in 1987, but his moment is now. His books are flying off the
shelves. He has inspired homages like Raoul Peck’s documentary “I Am Not Your Negro” and Ta-Nehisi Coates’s memoir “Between the World and Me.” Baldwin’s prophetic essays on race read like today’s news.

And
yet a full understanding of this pioneering gay African-American artist
remains elusive. While Baldwin’s books are in print, there’s one
revealing work that admirers long to read but have mostly been unable
to: his letters.

The
Baldwin estate has held tight to hundreds in its possession, letting
only a few scholars see them. It has almost never allowed any of
Baldwin’s correspondence to be published, or given biographers permission to quote a single word. Read more...